FOOTBALL CHANGES: 8 Game Prep Season Considered

In an attempt to reduce student-athlete injuries, the Iowa High School Athletic Association is considering cutting one game off the prep football regular season.

Currently, the board has three choices; leave the format the way it is, push the season a week ahead, or cut the season to eight games.

But going from nine games to eight games could have consequences.

“All of our records and everything over the last 30-35 years have been based on nine game schedules so we’ve got one less game up there to do individual and team types of things that are already in the record books,” says IHSAA Executive Director Rick Wulkow.

Losing a Friday game could also cost schools thousands of dollars in ticket sales. The board expects to make it’s decision next week.

2 comments

Alex

Joe

When they expanded the playoffs in the 1980s, they reduced the season to 8 games and it stood that way for many years. More than half the 30-35 years that Wulkow is talking about, so why not go back to eight games. It would be better to go back to the 16-team per class playoff formula, down from 32 teams, but it appears they don’t want to let go of that income boost that has been created. And don’t add another week to August, that is not the answer, either.